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10 Discussion Questions
Stuart: A Life Backwards
This reading group guide was not authorized or approved by the author, publisher, or agent for the book. This guide is copyrighted by Janice Harayda, and its sale or reproduction in any form is illegal except by public libraries that may reproduce it for use in their in-house reading groups. Other reading groups that would like to use this guide should link to this site or the "Contact" page on One-Minute Book Reviews to learn how to request permission to reproduce the guide.
"Charming" isn't a word often applied to books about "an ex-homeless, ex-junkie psychopath," as Alexander Masters describes his subject in Stuart: A Life Backwards. But it fits this biography of an intelligent and self-aware but physically and mentally impaired man – half Jekyll, half Hyde — whom the author met when both were living in or near Cambridge, England.
Masters has enriched his tragicomic story with quirky, New Yorker-ish line drawings of Stuart Clive Shorter and others in which people's heads seem too big for their bodies. And whether or not the distortion was intentional, it's a visual metaphor for the man described on its pages: Stuart was a someone whose brain always seemed to be about to burst out of his body and, apparently, in the end, did.
Questions For Reading Groups
1. One of the challenges faced by any biographer of a violent criminal is: How can you depict someone's terrible crimes accurately while also maintaining enough sympathy for the person that people will keep reading? How does Masters do this?
2. Masters found that Stuart changed constantly and acted in "amazingly inconsistent" ways. "At first I thought he was lying or stupid," Masters said in an interview. ["The Madman on Level D," by Anne Garvey, the Times of London, June 10, 2005.] Did you ever think Stuart was "lying or stupid," too? What changed your mind? How would you interpret Stuart's behavior?
3. Stuart has an unusual narrative structure for a biography – it moves backwards. Masters begins when Stuart is an adult – "an ex-homeless, ex-junkie psychopath" – and doesn't give his date of birth until Chapter 25. [Pages 1 and 291] But the story doesn't always move in a straight chronological line. Masters describes some of Stuart's ancestors in Chapter 24 before he tells you when his subject was born in Chapter 25. How well does this structure works?
4. Masters often criticizes mental-health professionals or popular views of mental illness, such as when he writes: " … It is wrong to assume that a failed [suicide] bid is, as the nauseating cliché will have it, only 'a cry for help.' It could be – is usually in Stuart's case – just the opposite. Its failure is the result of too great desperation to get the job done." [Page 160] How did Stuart affect your ideas about mental illness or any aspect of it, such as suicidal tendencies?
5. One of the characteristics of great biographies is that they are usually "about" more than one person's life. They may deal with subject's profession or social circle or the era in which he or she lived. What is Stuart "about" besides Stuart?
6. Stuart disliked a version of the book that Masters showed him. He called it "boring" and wanted something "like what Tom Clancy writes." [Page 1] How do you think Stuart would have liked the final book?
7. Biographies typically include only photographs of their subject and others. What do Masters's drawings add to the book?
8. Masters is an advocate for the homeless who has worked in hostels for them and run a street newspaper. Biographers who support a cause are sometimes faulted by critics ax-grinding, special pleading, or slanting their facts. Has Masters done any of those things? How does he keep Stuart's story fro becoming strident or sentimental?
9. Critics have disagreed on whether Stuart is biography, memoir, or something else, such as a true-crime story. Blurbs on the cover of the hardcover edition call the book a "biography." The directors of the National Book Critics Circle said that Stuart "defies categorization" and named it a finalist for the 2007 NBCC award in the autobiography/memoirs category. You can find one board member's comments on this issue by searching for the words "Stuart: A Life Backwards" on Critical Mass www.bookcriticle.blogspot.com. How would you categorize the book? How do such classifications affect your perceptions of Stuart and other books?
If you have time …
10. Stuart resembles James Boswell's Life of Johnson, the first great modern biography, in that it may tell you as much about its author as it does about its subject. So you might enjoy comparing the two books. Is fair to say that Masters was Stuart's Boswell? Why or why not? What does Masters have in common with Boswell?
Vital statistics
Hardcover edition: Stuart: A Life Backwards. By Alexander Masters. Delacorte, 300 pp., $20. Published: June 2006. Paperback edition: Delta, 320 pp., $12, paperback. To be released in May 2007.
A review of Stuart: A Life Backwards appeared on One-Minute Book Reviews on March 22, 2007, and is archived with the March 2007 posts and in the "Biographies" category on www.oneminutebookreviews.wordpress.com.
Other reviews: "Shaking Down a Violent Jekyll to Find the Gentle Hyde," Michiko Kakutani, the New York Times, June 9, 2006, p. E.2:36.
Most reading group guides come from publishers or sites that accept advertising from them. One-Minute Book Reviews does not accept free books or promotional materials or ads from publishers. All of its reading guides offer an independent evaluation of books that is not influenced by marketing concerns.
If you found this review helpful, please check the "Totally Unauthorized Reading Group Guides" category on One-Minute Book Reviews for others and bookmark the site so you don't miss forthcoming guides. I would also be grateful if you would forward a link to others who might like the site.
Links: Alexander Masters site: http://www.alexandermasters.net/new/
[Note: SNAP Preview is enabled on One-Minute Book Reviews. This means that you can see an example of the art in Stuart just by putting your cursor on the preceding link to Masters's site. You don't have to click on the link and go to his site.] Publisher's site: www.bantamdell.com Critical Mass, the blog of the board of directors of National Book Critics Circle http://bookcriticscircle.blogspot.com/. Click on the Critical Mass link, then search the site for "Stuart: A Life Backwards" for posts on why the book was a finalist for its 2007 NBCC awards.
© 2007 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.


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Criminologist Pete Simi spent time with the Sikh temple gunman and says Page began to identify with racist ideology while serving in the Army.
TJ Leyden is a former skinhead who says his peers and commanding officer knew about his beliefs while he was in the Marine Corps. Leyden also says there are white supremacists actively recruiting within the military.
Post by: Anderson Cooper
Filed under: Shooting at Sikh temple
There are so many mental health issues nowadays that soldiers have problems with getting addressed due to the stigma especially the wounded warriors in the WTB. It is unfortunate that these soldiers cannot speak out for what they need due to repercussions from the military. The Army is reactive unfortunately and not proactive. It would be awesome if Anderson could and would speak with the wounded warriors at the Ft.Riley, KS Warrior Transition Battalion. I know they would have PLENTY to say.
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
Questions or comments? Send an email
Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°

subset: commoncrawl


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9:15 AM NOV. 2 UPDATE: Trains resume, University running shuttles from Princeton Junction
9:15 AM NOV. 2 TRAVEL UPDATE: Trains resume, University running shuttles from Princeton Junction
Here is an update on travel conditions at the University, in Princeton and surrounding communities. Conditions are changing rapidly as utility crews clear roads and restore power, and as travel providers restore service. Please use the links below for the latest information, and use caution and common sense while traveling.
New Jersey Transit has resumed limited service between New York and Trenton, with stops at Newark airport and Princeton Junction. For the schedule, click here.
The Dinky line between Princeton Junction and campus remains down, so the University is establishing a shuttle service from the junction to the Dinky station on campus.
For Friday, Nov. 2, TigerTransit buses will begin meeting trains at Princeton Junction station at 10:25 a.m. and will run continuously until the last scheduled train at 2:39 a.m. Saturday.
The University expects to maintain the shuttle service until the Dinky line between Princeton Junction and campus resumes.
Amtrak Northeast Corridor service is disrupted. Check with Amtrak for the latest updates.
SEPTA trains, including regional rail service between Philadelphia and Trenton, are running. Anyone flying to Philadelphia International Airport wishing to get to campus can take SEPTA rail to Trenton and transfer to a New Jersey Transit train for the short ride to Princeton Junction, then catch the TigerTransit shuttle.
Highways and major roads leading to the University are open. However, because of lingering power outages, many traffic lights are still out and turn restrictions are in effect.
Hundreds of secondary roads and side streets remain blocked by fallen trees and power lines. Many traffic lights are out of service.
Roads and walkways on campus are clear and open.
Long lines of vehicles are forming at many gas stations in Princeton and surrounding towns. Because of power outages, some stations are closed.
Drivers intending to refuel in the Princeton area should allot extra time to wait to in line.
The major airports serving Princeton have reopened. Flight schedules are returning to normal.
These sites have the latest information:
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (JFK, LGA, EWR)
Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)
Passengers are strongly advised to check with their airlines for information on specific flights.
Shuttles and taxis
Taxis and commercial shuttles are a good option for transportation to campus. Here are shuttle services taking riders to Princeton:
A1 Limo, 609-919-2022
King Limo, 609-951-0444
Olympic Airporter,800-822-9797
Please note: Demand for shuttles is high. Please be patient in trying to reach these services.


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Today's Music: Julie Ruin – Stay Monkey
Note on Today's Music: Because it has the word "monkey", I have to ask you to check out the great new home of Words For The Weekend.
It's a contractual thing.
Don't ask.
Sun rises, sun sets. 7 times, in fact, since the last time we did one of these. And in that week, I had a lot of fun bouncing around reading blogs. Here's some of what I saw.
Momshieb dialed it down. Cayman Thorn and his son discussed Fenway Park, and GingerFightBack did something about institutionalized bullying.
Oh, and LifeConfusions gave me a Versatile Blogger Award! (She really deserved it. I got it from her because of tithing. She has a great site, and I hope you guys check her out.)
Thanks to them and everyone else for some time well spent reading this week!
Oh what I could have read if I were immortal. But what would you have done? That's what we asked in last weeks poll. And now, your answers are burned into my brain forever. Here's what you said. (As always, my comments are eternal in italics.)
see Hangover 13: We Promise, Last One sometime.
(Some things just don't improve with age.)
piss on the front steps of several politicians, then knock the door.
(If you were a politician, it would be knock on the door, then piss on whoever answered.)
Sleep some. Then some more. Then maybe a nap. butimbeautiful
(Even immortality wouldn't give me enough time for all the beauty sleep I need.)
…try to kill myself around the age of 120.
(Is that thousand or million?)
Amass enough wealth to visit all my blogging friends – Benzeknees
(At my current income, I'll be dead by then.)
I would learn to tap dance without falling in the sink… Andro
(Maybe you should learn to tap dance outside the kitchen…)
Live a very long time 🙂 Andro
(You call this living?)
…guide humanity towards greatness. – Hotspur
(At last! Hot dogs and buns in the same size packages!)
probably commit suicide – calahan
(I don't think you understand how this works…)
Grow a ZZ Top beard (Frank)
(I'm already doing that with my ear hair!)
brickhousechick says, eat as many mac n cheese burgers as possible
(Immortality means you'll be able to live with the indigestion. For a long long time.)
read every book ever written (I'd be an immortal nerd) Stacy!!
(Because of a similar mindset, WE HAVE A WINNER!!!)
Start my diet in 6,999 years…zannyro
(What's the rush?)
Eat poison straight from the jar. Linda Vernon
(80s music comes in jars?)
show up at Vera Farmiga's door with flowers every night until she said yes
(You realize she isn't immortal, right?)
want to die.
(Umm…it's good to have goals?)
Try one of those convenience store hot dogs, till then – forget it – Alex A
(Half the great taste comes from the risk of death!?)
Have more time to write stuff clever enough to get posted here… PMAO
(Wait – clever stuff gets posted here?!?)
Take a nap. If I'm going to be around that long I want to be at my best. (SPP)
(Just outlive anyone who says you don't look great. Suckers!)
Have lots of sex with strangers… wait IMMORTAL or IMMORAL? (UndercoverL)
(If you're having sex with them, they probably aren't strangers anymore.)
does that mean that you are not? (SnB)
(Ask me in one thousand years.)
Spend more time on this answer than what I just have. Kayjai
(I'd probably still not spend any time coming up with these answers.)
Continue to avoid Dostoyevsky.~~Addie
(Crap! Is he immortal too???)
Still not bother reading depressing Russian lit. Elyse 54.5
(Ah, so you'll be reading Chekov instead)
finally win at blogging. thematticuskingdom
(That's just crazy talk. Next you'll want to win these polls.)
hide away from the world so as not to be studied like a lab rat. thematticuskingdom
(*puts away cameras and hides cheese*)
hate reinventing myself every generation. thematticuskingdom
(You could just join the Rolling Stones.)
take some heads while saying "there can be only one." thematticuskingdom
(Where would you hide your sword when you're naked?)
I would BASE jump off the roof of my house- Susie Lindau
(More rewarding than laying second BASE for the Rockies!)
be immoral. Rutabaga
(I was supposed to wait to be immortal for that?!?)
Start rock climbing and conquer "impossible" climbs. Immortal means you bounce?
(Sounds like you're planning less on "climbing" and more on "falling"…)
Congratulations to Stacy for an excellent use of immortality! And from the offered choices, the most popular were I don't know. But I could afford to do it sloooowwwwwly… and DO THESE POLLS FOREVER!!!!!!. So congratulations to all of you who take your time answering these. I really do appreciate it.
Next week, I'm going to disappear. Not in a David Copperfield "where's the elephant" kind of way. My girl and I are going to make up for a crappy summer by condensing ours into one week in the Caribbean. And the internet where well be is apparently so bad that I'll be completely offline until we return.
Fortunately, The Most Wonderful Girl In The Universe and I won't be leaving til after this post goes up, so you have plenty of time to make suggestions!
And just to give you something to do, this one will be open late than usual, until Tuesday, 5 November, 2359 EST.
(And if you leave an "Other" answer, leave a way to identify you, and I'll link back to you next week.)
And until we meet again, enjoy these.
In honor of Apple releasing yet more iStuff:
And I was reminded of this while reading the latest post from Lily In Canada. Because the classics never die.
For those in the US, don't forget to change your clocks on the 2nd. Revel in that extra hour, and have fun until we meet again!


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For the latest updates to Global Public Square, including show information and Fareed's Take, visit the new GPS site on CNN.com.
Neal, let me add my two cents to the topic you bring up.
Hinduism has no concept of a Creator God, the Creation, the Fall of man into sin and guilt, a Day of Judgment, atonement or forgiveness, It did not produce democracy, science or equality among different races and racks of mankind. Instead it produced great social evils which afflict the Indian people to this day. As a religion and a philosophy, Hinduism is a complete failure.
Furthermore, it is my contention that hinduism is a social cult program that seeks to organize a culture according to macabre Hindu concepts of soul-transmigration, karma, race and caste, raipes, sati, devadasi incest and the likes.
The fact of the matter is that India was ruled by moslems for most of its history. The moslems gave India most of its culture, civilization, arts, science, music, architecture, culinary heritage and pulled it out of dark ages.
Remember hindus are the b astard descendants of african black servants who were brought there by the rulers.
"Ghat Kanchuki" is India's national sport. In essence, a girl is hunted down in an arena like a deer. When subdued, she is raiped. Whoever raipes her longest gets a gold medal.
Folks, please read this book. It is an eye opener !!!! It will send a chille down your spine!!
"The Hindus" An Alternative History By Wendy Doniger. It has been banned in India.
How many openly gay Hindu leaders got caught butt raping younger males last year vs. Christian ones?
Does India have social spending programs that allow people who could work to collect disability pay?
Are there all-white and all-black churches of the same religion in India such as are all across the deep southern states of America?
Do Indian men and boys strung out on meds legally carry guns in India? And if so do they walk into movie theaters and schools and kill everyone,
Do Indian men wear baggy trousers that show off their anuses to gay men too?
What does Indian gangsta rap sound like?
Does Donna have a dot on her forehead?
Is there an Indian Man-Boy Love Association legally operating as NAMBLA is in the USA?
Is it right that the world's leaders allow India to have nuclear weapons but not Israel?
Was the president of India caught cheating on his wife with a fat chick too?
Is the average university grad student in India unable to pass an 8th grade final exam such as is the case with Ivy League graduates?
Do you think American corporations hire Indians to answer phone calls because Anericans are too stupid and lazy to do it?
Do Indian parents dress their kids up in gang banger costumes too?
Which weighs more... two Indians or the average American woman.
Does the Indian government not allow gay troops to sodomize each other too?
Hinduism is a CULT....communal seyx, drugs, medieval and barbaric values, worship every tom dick and harry. The world has rejected Hinduism and concentrated it in one location so it is easy to get rid of when time comes.
Use of seyx by hindu brahmins in India to keep domination over the masses is not a new thing. Examples are:::::
:::: the rite called 'ANANG DANA PRARANA' traditions in Gujrath and Rajasthan of sending young child brides before marriage to temple for one night to be spent with the priest, similar tradition of visiting temple priest by one woman from every household for one night during the nine nights in 'NAVARATNA' prevalent in Gujrath and Rajasthan, are all such examples of the seyxual subjugation employed by the brahmins over the masses.
Use of seyx by hindu brahmins in India to keep domination over the masses is not a new thing. Examples are:::::
:::: PUTRA KAMESHTI YADNA: Gang Raipes sanctioned by pundits
Did God bless India on 9/11 or was that karma?
The ugliness of Americanism has produced many a fat folk.
Child sacrifices to animal gods such as sacred crocodiles are common in India.
Why do openly gay Catholic priests only raip boys?
In many Hindu temples there are sculptures depicting men having seyx not only with men but also cows. What is the meaning of this? Is not the cow sacred? If it is, then it should be worshipped not seyxually assaulted!
If the Hindu man's wife dies, he is free to go and find another woman when he wants. But if the Hindu woman's husband dies, not only is she prohibited to remarry but she should be cremated along with her dead husband ("Sati").
India legalized abortion in 1972. What took America so long to do it?
Hinduism is a disgusting cult. Even to this day cross-cousin, father-daughter, mother-son, brother-sister, doing each other is common practice. Let me make it easy for you and refer you to the hindu scriptures and share it with the world. Shame on Hindus and barbaric Hinduism.
500,000 girls in Mumbai, India had abortion last year. Of these, 65% were under age 15. Also, more than half of them were raipe victims. Ton of b@stards in India.


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I have to say, the 2013 Evil Dead remake absolutely shocked me. I was left completely stunned. Not about the movie itself, mind you, but about the glowing reviews that it has received so far.
There are days when being an registered critic can be odd. Don't get me wrong, it's mostly good times. I have yet to find that sweet, sweet zone where studios pay me off to give a good review – it apparently happens all the time according to commenters on the Internet – but I hold out hope. One day perhaps I will be big enough to be bought off. One day. Until then though, like most critics I exist mostly in a vacuum. Not entirely, but mostly.
There can be films you know nothing about beyond the general details, or there can be films where you've already heard a considerable amount. For Evil Dead, I fell somewhere in the middle.
I loved the original Sam Raimi films. The first Evil Dead was comically awful and I loved it for its terribleness. Its sequel/remake was even better, albeit in a different way. The first film was an amateur's attempt at horror that inadvertently founded a subgenre, while the second was a professional's approach to growing that genre. The third film, Army of Darkness, remains of my favorite films of all time. It's a different type of film than the other two, far more comedy than horror, but it belongs with the series. I even have a 16" Ash from Army sitting on my desk as I type this. He protects me, even as my co-workers point and laugh. Once I get that sweet studio buy-off money they will learn.
So basically, I was excited about the new Evil Dead. I avoided early reviews, didn't watch a single trailer after the first, and even stayed away from reading about set news like it was a baseball bat wielding monkey with Ebola. I did hear some general reactions from critics though, and it was almost universally positive.
Huzzah, I thought (I occasionally think in Renaissance Fair dialog – it's a thing). I was thrilled by the press invite, and whisked my lovely fiancé off to the theater. Afterwards, I could see in her eye that she was considering throat chopping me. Buy the ticket, take the ride, I told her.
Uruguayan director Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead seems to miss the point in every possible way. Technically, it is a solid film, and on that front Alvarez acquits himself well in his first full length film debut. It's just everywhere else that the film stumbles upon. It is a simple film that relies on gore and nothing but gore. It wants to make you sick with imagery. It wants you to gag and be repulsed. It wants you watching through your fingers. If the gore doesn't do it for you though, the rest of the film is just dull.
The film honors the original plot, while adding a few minor twists. Five friends head off into the woods, but rather than enjoying a weekend outing they are there to help Mia (Jane Levy) beat her drug addiction. Her absentee brother David (Shiloh Fernandez) is joined by his girlfriend Natalie (Elizabeth Blackmore), who may as well have just been called "blonde girl" for all that she brings to the film, nerd Eric (Lou Taylor Pucci) – who you can tell is a nerd because he wears glasses – and the world's most irresponsible nurse Olivia (Jessica Lucas) rounds out the cast.
They find the Necronomicon, read from it, and summon a horrible evil that wants to murder them, etc., etc.
It's best that you generally don't think too hard about the plot. Thinking about why a group of people would take a junkie going through withdrawals out into the woods to hang out at a run down and filthy cabin that no one bothered to check on first, or why they wouldn't leave after the first few obvious warning signs is a loser's bet. It's best just to roll with it.
The plot is basically a wink and a nod to horror fans, as it is filled with familiar trope after trope. The characters are vapid and dull, but they fit admirably with the bland archetypes they represent – from the physically fit guy that could be the jock, to the hot blonde, to the nerd. They are shallow representations of horror movie clichés. If that sounds familiar, it should: the film is basically what Cabin in the Woods was making fun of. It's also badly acted.
To be fair, there's only so much an actor can do when they have blood vomited all over them, but none of the cast is particularly engaging or charismatic. They actually are more interesting after they die. Jane Levy fairs the best and generally has the meatiest part, while Blackmore's Natalie may have had 10 lines in the entire film. There are entire sections that you'll forget she is in the movie.
So what do you do with a film that has no real originality, a weak cast, and terrible characters? You dump gore on them. Lots and lots of gore.
To some, the gore is what will win them over. It is incredibly over-the-top, but not so much that it is comical. Some may consider it disturbing, but perhaps I am just desensitized. It is grotesque, but it is also thrown at you in such a way that you become numb to it. The gore is a crutch. And while some will be revolted and shocked at the imagery, the experience is entirely a visual one. There is no real sense of fear. The movie never even really bothers to try to scare you. It is lazy with its horror, and replaces it with buckets of blood and revolting displays.
If you take away the blood and gore, you are left with a boring film filled with characters you could care less about, spouting dull and cliché lines and consistently acting against their own best interests. Even as people ducked and covered their eyes to shield themselves from the mutilation, I wondered if I could get away with reading my book. It's not as weird as it sounds – I brought an eBook. I would have been able to read it perfectly.
To top it all off, the film builds to a climax that is just plain dumb. It is meant to be the big payoff, but it just makes you wonder what the point of it all was to begin with.
This movie is the film Sam Raimi wanted to make back in 1981, but didn't have the budget or skill. Instead he created something original. This film is anything but. It is one horror film cliché after another, but it doesn't even have the decency to realize that what it is doing has been done so, so much better before.
The Evil Dead remake has one thing going for it that will appeal to a very particular group of fans – it is gory as hell. It's one of the goriest films ever made. But it's almost an entirely visceral experience. It basically says "here are some people, they are going to die horribly, let's watch!" There's literally nothing more to the film than that. If you are like me, and years of terrible and bloody movies have completely desensitized you to a possibly alarming degree, then you'll find that all you are left with is a really boring film, filled with characters that you may occasionally wonder how they are going to die.
There will be those that see this film and think it a loving remake of the original, and the use of such familiar trappings are meant as an honor. It's an homage to the genre, some will say, maybe. If you belong to that group, feel free to tee off on me in the comments below. I will, however, be forced to stand my ground, as this was the worst movie I have seen so far this year. At one point I thought I might doze off to the lulling sounds of mutilation, but my fiancé's accusatory stare was the scariest thing in the film by far.
Editors' Recommendations
- Evil Dead: The Game shines where other 4v1 games fail
- Oz the Great and Powerful review, just like Army of Darkness but with more shiny and less humor


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Wash., Colo. bars test limits of legal pot laws
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — John Connelly leaned forward on his barstool, set his lips against a clear glass pipe and inhaled a white cloud of marijuana vapor.
A handful of people milled around him. Three young women stood behind the bar, ready to assist with the preparation of the bongs, as the strains of a blues band playing downstairs sounded faintly off the exposed brick walls.
"It feels so comfortable in here," said Connelly, 33. "It's just a great social aspect."
Welcome to the Stonegate — puns welcome. It's one of a tiny number of bars, cafes and private clubs catering to the stoner class in Washington and Colorado since voters last fall made them the first states to legalize marijuana for adults over 21.
Both states bar the public use of marijuana — which typically would include bars and restaurants — and most bars are steering clear of allowing pot use at least until officials come up with rules for the new weed industry.
But a few have been testing the boundaries of what's allowed in hopes of drumming up business and making a political statement.
"I've been running a bar a few years now, and people would always go outside around the corner, into the shadows, to smoke up," said Jeff Call, the Stonegate's owner. "People shouldn't have to hide. There's no rules yet, but I'm trying to do this thoughtfully and responsibly."
Washington's law bans pot distribution by anyone but a licensed seller — and no such licenses will be issued until the end of the year at the earliest. There's also a statewide smoking ban that prohibits smoking where people work.
So the establishments are trying various strategies to allow on-site consumption.
Frankie's Sports Bar and Grill in Olympia is less than a mile from the headquarters of the Washington State Liquor Control Board, where officials are writing rules for the pot industry. It allows members of its private smoking room to use tobacco or marijuana.
The owner, Frankie Schnarr, said his revenue has jumped by nearly half since he started allowing pot smoking in December.
In Denver, Club 64 — named after Colorado's law, Amendment 64 — charges a $30 yearly membership for the privilege of getting high in a private social setting. Members receive emails alerting them to the locations of club "meetings," like a recent St. Patrick's Day party hosted by a local bar, featuring marijuana-infused green beer.
Club 64 owner Robert Corry, an attorney, wants to open a bar where he can welcome members on a daily basis.
"A marijuana club is exactly what the voters wanted," Corry said. "Colorado voters knew exactly what we were doing."
The Front Tea & Art Shop in Lafayette, about 20 miles north of Denver, offered "cannabis-friendly" evenings six nights a week at which customers over 21 were allowed to bring their own pot.
Owner Veronica Carpio said the cafe attracted 25 people a day — until last month, when Lafayette declared a moratorium on pot use at businesses. She's suing, arguing the city overstepped its authority.
Anyone who wanders up the stairs to the Stonegate's second-floor smoking lounge is charged a nominal fee — $1 a day to $20 a year — to become a member of the private club. To evade the smoking ban, there's no smoking allowed — only "vaporizing," a method that involves heating the marijuana without burning it.
Call provides space in the lounge — an L-shaped bar of blond wood, painted with portraits of Keith Richards, Stevie Ray Vaughn and other rock heroes — to the proprietor of a local medical marijuana dispensary.
People who don't have a medical authorization have to bring their own pot, then rent a vaporizer — $10 by the half-hour — or pay to have one prepared for them. For $5, those who do have an authorization are offered various preparations of "shatter" — a hardened oil of powerful marijuana extract.
Call opened his rum-and-pizza joint a few years ago in a brick building along a formerly seedy stretch of shops, bars and restaurants. The second floor had recently been operated as a brothel, he said.
On a recent Friday night, a gentle scent of fresh marijuana filled the room. At one table, a handful of 20-somethings inhaled deeply from a rubber hose attached to a rented vaporizer, a black box that toasted the cannabis to 375 degrees.
Those who wanted a more powerful dose grabbed a seat at the bar, where Jenae DeCampo, a 21-year-old in a black tube-top, pulled out a small blowtorch.
DeCampo held the hissing flame to the metal stem of a clear glass bong until the metal glowed orange. With a wand, she picked up a small piece of what looked like amber — a chunk of potent, hardened marijuana oil — and rubbed it on the scorching metal.
A white cloud filled the pipe, bubbled through the water at the bottom and rushed into Connelly's lungs.
"A lot of people are shocked by what we're doing because it's so uncommon," DeCampo said. "I like being part of something that could possibly be big."
Tacoma's code enforcement staff is reviewing the Stonegate's operation, a city spokeswoman said.
Justin Nordhorn, the state liquor board's chief of enforcement, has some concerns about bars that allow pot use. Most importantly, he said, is that marijuana can compound alcohol's intoxicating effects, meaning people might be even more dangerous when driving.
He also doubted whether the "private club" aspect of the establishments would keep them out of trouble. A truly private club that serves alcohol — say, an Elks Lodge — would have to have a liquor license specific to private clubs, and members of the public couldn't be allowed in.
For now, Nordhorn noted, there is a loophole in the state board's ability to block bars from allowing pot use. Its rules require bars to address on-site criminal violations, but public use of marijuana is only a civil infraction — meaning officials can't necessarily punish bars that let people partake, even if police could come in and write tickets to toking customers.
That's something the board could address as it makes rules for the new pot industry.
For now, Call's goal is to get more people into the bar — people who will get hungry and order pizzas.
"People are just smiling and friendly and happy," Call said. "I just really like the feeling you get when you're up here."
Associated Press writer Alexandra Tilsley in Denver contributed to this report.
Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle and Tilsley can be reached at http://twitter.com/atilsley


text:
Amy Schumer talks a lot about sex -- so much so that her Comedy Central special was called simply Mostly Sex Stuff. But her comedy is about much more than that. On her show Inside Amy Schumer, as well as in her stand-up, she tackles racism and awkward moments, and yes, sex, too. Also sex.
Related Topics
Other segments from the episode on June 25, 2013
June 25, 2013
Guest: Amy Schumer
TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross. Tonight, Comedy Central shows the next-to-the-last episode in the first season of the series "Inside Amy Schumer." It's already been renewed for a second season. Amy Schumer is my guest. Her show is a mix of stand-up, short sketches and interviews. She plays a lot of different characters in the sketches, but her persona in stand-up comedy is an attractive, middle-class, educated, single woman who's a little slutty.
As her executive producer Dan Powell put it, she can say the most filthy, obscene things in the sweetest manner. Last year she had a special on Comedy Central called "Mostly Sex Stuff," which was the second-highest rated special on the network in five years. You may have seen her roasting celebrities like Roseanne Barr and Charlie Sheen. Mel Brooks recently described her on our show as a new comic he thinks is wonderful.
Amy Schumer will not sweetly be saying obscene on our show, but we are going to have an adult conversation about her comedy, and there may be some punch lines you won't want to explain to young children. Here's an excerpt of Schumer's stand-up comedy from the first edition of "Inside Amy Schumer."
AMY SCHUMER: I'm a little sluttier than the average bear. I really am, a little sluttier. I can be honest about that. Like I'm no stranger to Plan B, I'll say that. I'm not like what is that, like I know what that is. It's the morning-after pill. You can take it the night before if you're feeling amped, you know, just like walk by a mirror, catch a glimpse of yourself in a new tube top, like whoa, pop, you can do that.
You feel like such a dirty whore buying Plan B. It is so embarrassing because it's over-the-counter, but you have to ask your pharmacist. And they know what you want, but they make you ask. They're looking at me, I'm like you see where my eyeliner is. Just give it to me.
SCHUMER: The staring contest. What, do you think I'm here because it's allergy season, really?
GROSS: That's Amy Schumer from her show "Inside Amy Schumer." Amy Schumer, welcome to FRESH AIR.
SCHUMER: Thank you for having me.
GROSS: My sense of responsibility as a journalist requires me to say you really can't take Plan B the night before, so...
SCHUMER: Oh yes, uh...
GROSS: I just want to make sure everybody knows that that's a joke and that they don't try that, so...
SCHUMER: It didn't even occur to me that someone would take that as actual advice. Wow, I should really have more ownership over that. But I like that that was one of the cleaner clips that you found to play.
GROSS: Yes, exactly, exactly. So I just have to ask you: Do you really think of yourself as a slut?
SCHUMER: I often wonder how attractive I am and how slutty I am. That's something I'm back and forth on. But I think I have been promiscuous, and I think a lot of women have. So I like to talk about it as a way to maybe make those other women feel less alone and less strange and dirty about their own actions.
GROSS: Tell us more how that became your comic persona.
SCHUMER: That wasn't on purpose. I started out very much set-up, punch line. And I think, you know, I started when I was 22 or 23 years old. So I've always been sexual. I've always been a sexual girl, but it just, it was coming out more and more in my stand-up. So it wasn't a conscious decision, but then I was getting ready to film my hour special for Comedy Central, and they said, you know, it's a lot of stuff about sex. Can you maybe mix it up more, maybe some racism or something else?
SCHUMER: And I said, well, I said why don't we just call it "Mostly Sex Stuff." And so it was kind of like a lazy decision, and that was really when I realized wow, this is, it is a lot of stuff about sex. But I didn't grow up hearing any women really delving into that side of themselves, and so I thought OK, maybe I can be this person for women and for men just to hear the woman's perspective in a, you know, a like less apologetic, honest way.
And I don't know if I'm going to veer away from that or what, but I've been trying to keep it pretty natural, just stuff I'm interested in talking about.
GROSS: So a lot of male comics talk about sex a lot onstage, more than your average female comic does. What did you take from that male approach to sex comedy, and what did you reject from it?
SCHUMER: Oh, I don't know that I could really generalize the male approach to comedy and sex, but I do know that I'll get offstage, and the club owner will be like that was a lot about sex. And they would never say that to a male comic, Dave Attell or Jim Norton would never get offstage and have a promoter of a theater or a club go over, like, you like to talk about sex.
You know, so it's just this - that was made such a - that there's such a stigma with being a woman who talks about sex, and there's just sort of no repercussions, I think, if you're a male comic that talks about sex. They wouldn't label you that way, I don't think.
GROSS: So you do talk a lot about sex onstage, and you do use the word vagina a lot onstage. Were you always comfortable talking about sex in front of a microphone and using that word? Because I think a lot of girls grow up feeling, like, so uncomfortable using any word that describes the sexual parts of their body.
SCHUMER: I'm glad you asked that. Yeah, I - well, one thing is my mom, other than - I have a joke where I say she - oh, I'm going to bring her to a soccer game because I want to show her what boundaries look like. I just grew up in a house where things weren't that taboo to talk about. And my mom when she was teaching us how to say our different body parts taught me how to say vagina the same that she taught me how to say ear.
I think she wanted us to be able to tell her if we were ever molested without being embarrassed. And so there wasn't this sense of shame, and I was running around naked to an age that probably wasn't appropriate and just never was made to feel embarrassed or ashamed of my body or think anything was wrong with me.
You know, and to a - probably to a fault because now if I do a photo shoot, and - I'm a comedian, but if any woman shows up to a photo shoot for a magazine, it's usually, you know, they sexualize it. And so they'll be like well, what about with your shirt off. And I'm like sure just because I don't think of that as a big deal. But as I'm getting older, I'm learning to put more value and value my privacy more of my body and some of my personal information.
I definitely am an over-sharer, and I'm trying to get better with that. As I'm becoming more well-known, I - it's more important for me to keep some of my information private.
GROSS: So you do some interviews in your shows, and in one set of interviews you're interviewing people on the street about whether they sext or not and whether they like being sexted. And I - do you ever do that?
SCHUMER: Do I sext? Oh, you mean have I ever sent like a sexual message to somebody over text?
GROSS: Yes, or a picture of yourself?
SCHUMER: Oh yeah, definitely. I - you know, now that I'm more well-known, I can't put my head in them.
SCHUMER: But now, I've definitely over the years, yeah, I've been in long-distance relationships, and it's definitely happened. Yeah, I have definitely engaged in sext messaging and received and sent dirty photos. What about you?
GROSS: Who, me?
SCHUMER: Sorry, I just, I couldn't help myself.
GROSS: So one of your sketches ends up with - I forget whether you're sexting or what, but it ends with you turning on the end of like an old black-and-white like 1930s or 1940s movie where like the romantic finale is the kiss.
SCHUMER: Right.
GROSS: And it's so chaste and romantic compared to all the sexting and everything. And do you think that that's the kind of split that you sometimes have in your own life of, like, doing all this, like, explicit stuff but loving, like, the romantic fantasies of, say, old 1940s movies?
SCHUMER: Yeah, I think so, and the scene where I'm sexting, I'm sitting there, and a guy doesn't know where he's catching you. He's like what are you wearing. And I'm sitting there, and I'm wearing a T-shirt with a cat on it, wearing a bonnet that says Downton Catty. And I'm eating pasta with my hands. And so I wrote that scene, and I thought what if I wrote back what I was actually thinking, which is, you know, he's like what do you want me to do to you, and I'm like tell me I'm safe in my apartment.
SCHUMER: Tell me what all the remotes do. And then also trying to navigate what does this guy want me to say. You know, like just I don't know. But yeah, like just, that girls - I still do want that romance and to be adored by someone, but then there's also this high demand to be super sexual, and that's being asked I think of a lot of women more and more now. I'm assuming with the younger generation, the sort of sexual demands are so much higher now.
And so I just - I think that scene is just showing a real girl just trying to navigate this new territory.
GROSS: I worry about those sexual expectations.
SCHUMER: Sure.
GROSS: You know, I think for some young women, the attitude is, well, now that we've all been through feminism, now it's safe to be sexual objects again and to learn how to strip for our boyfriends and become pole dancers.
SCHUMER: Right.
GROSS: I mean, do you find that disturbing at all?
SCHUMER: Yeah, it's totally disturbing. I feel very lucky that I grew up before Facebook and before Internet porn. I - it's such tough territory to navigate now. And I'm just dealing with guys that came up on the end of it, where they just were exposed to it. You know, they're in their 30s, and some of them have a lot of trouble with it. And there's new addictions because of it and these new expectations on these girls.
Like I didn't feel any pressure when I was younger to be overly sexual because there wasn't that much exposure to it.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is comic and actress Amy Schumer, and her show on Comedy Central is called "Inside Amy Schumer." So there's another sketch I want to play, and this is - this is a real girl thing. It's a sketch about how girls handle compliments from other girls.
And this sketch starts with two girlfriends running into each other on the street, and Amy Schumer enters the scene a little bit later.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Oh my God, Bree(ph), you died your hair. It looks amazing.
(as Bree) Oh no, you're just being nice.
(as character) No seriously, it looks great.
(as Bree) No, I tried to look like Kate Hudson but ended up looking like a golden retriever's dingleberry. But you, look at your cute little dress.
(as character) Little? I'm like a Size 100 now. Anyway, I paid like $2 for it. It's probably made out of old Burger King crowns. I look like a whore locked out of her apartment.
SCHUMER: (as herself) Hi.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Amy, hi.
(as character) Hey. I love your hat.
SCHUMER: (as herself) Are you drunk? I look like an Armenian man. People are trying to buy carpets from me.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Excuse me, when did you start working for NASA? You're weightless.
SCHUMER: (as herself) (Bleep) you. I'm a (bleep) cow. Indian people are trying to worship me. I sleep standing up in a field.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Fancy meeting you girls here.
(as character) Of course I see everyone when I look like Susan Boyle's toothbrush.
(as character) You look so pretty.
(as character) Ms. Jessica(ph), congrats on your big promotion beeatch.
(as character) I'm going to get fired in like two seconds.
(as character) No.
(as character) I'm legally retarded. On my SATs I just drew a picture of a house on the first page and ate the rest.
(as character) Lindsey(ph)...
GROSS: That's a sketch from "Inside Amy Schumer," and Amy Schumer is my guest. I recognize that, I really do.
SCHUMER: Well, good.
GROSS: That sense of, like, if somebody says something nice to you that you have to somehow answer it with a self-insult, with something like really self-derogatory.
SCHUMER: Yeah, I think a lot of it...
GROSS: Why is that? What is that about?
SCHUMER: I have some ideas. I think it might be because we're afraid of jealousy from other women, or it might be from actual self-hatred, but I know that every girl I know does that. And - but I think that scene, it kind of - it went viral, you know, whatever that means. A lot of people watched it and responded to it. And especially women, of course, and they - everybody just recognized that behavior in themself.
And I think it has affected the women that have seen it. It's affected me because you catch yourself doing that. We just noticed we were doing it around the writers' office and to a ridiculous degree. We just thought let's shine a light on this, and we do that as much as possible on the show, but I'm glad that that one resonated with people.
GROSS: So this was women in the writers' office doing that?
SCHUMER: This - well, I mean, we all - every scene wound up being a big collaboration, but yeah, it was the women in the office doing it. The men, I've never noticed men doing that. I'll be like that's a great shirt, and then the guy will just wear that shirt all week.
GROSS: My guest is comic Amy Schumer. Her series "Inside Amy Schumer" is on Comedy Central. More after a break. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: So if you're just joining us, my guest is Amy Schumer, and her new comedy show on Comedy Central is called "Inside Amy Schumer." Another sketch I want to play from your show, and this is about the difficulty of dealing with older members of your family who blurt out racist things and don't even get why it's racist, why it's like so wrong to say that.
And in this scene, like you and your boyfriend, who's Latino, are at dinner with your family, including your grandmother, and here's the scene, and this is from "Inside Amy Schumer."
SCHUMER: (as herself) All of our friends had left us, and we were both stuck there. I mean Napa Valley of all places, but that's basically how Carlos(ph) and I met.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) I am very happy to meet you. Also, I'm finished.
SCHUMER: (as herself) Oh my God, grandma, no, Carlos is not a busboy. He's my boyfriend. I'm so sorry.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Carlos) Amy, it's OK. She grew up during a different time.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as character) Tell him to start mowing the lawn by the pool so it'll be quiet for my nap.
SCHUMER: Look familiar? Are you tired of your elderly relatives thinking their blatant racism is OK?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As character) I don't know how to help my (bleep) grandma.
SCHUMER: There is an answer: Generations, a revolutionary new facility where we give your elderly loved ones the politically correct social skills to get along in the modern world.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as character) This person is what?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (As character) Drug mule.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as character) A gardener?
(as character) No, Latino.
GROSS: That's really funny.
SCHUMER: Thank you.
GROSS: So have you experienced this with relatives or friends?
SCHUMER: Yes, I wrote the scene, and I've definitely experienced that with relatives. My great-grandma, who was a bootlegger in old New York, she - Estelle(ph) Schumer, she passed away a couple years ago, but her liquor store is still up on 54th Street. But she - you know, New York, she was 90, I think, 4 when she died or 95. And she would just sort of - she would just say a word.
She would say - she would call black people colored. And it would just make all the blood rush to my head, like no, that's not OK. But then you think, well, she's so old. And then, you know, I would mention that to my friends, and then it just - I realized everybody has - you know, most people I know have older relatives that will just say something that's so unacceptable.
And then I just thought, well, what's the age? What's the cutoff? Because if one of my parents said something inappropriate, I would stop them. So - and it seems like a lot of people have had this experience. And so I had the idea to film this scene.
GROSS: Did you say anything to her ever?
SCHUMER: No, no, I was scared of her. She was terrifying.
SCHUMER: I mean she - she was like so tiny by the end of her life, she - you know, she was just sort of like slowly going into downward dog. But I was just so afraid of her. No, I never said anything to her.
GROSS: One of the things you say in one of your stand-up routines is that every woman has probably been a little bit raped. What do you mean by that?
SCHUMER: Let's get into it, Terry.
GROSS: What do you mean by that?
SCHUMER: I - most women I know, that I'm close to, have had a sexual experience that they were really uncomfortable with and that if it wasn't completely rape, it was something very similar to rape. And so I say it's not all black and white. There's a gray area of rape, and I call it grape. And it's the guy you went home with in college, and you said no, and then he still did it. Or maybe you woke up, and it was somebody you were dating, and they were - you know, there's just so many different things that can happen.
And so it's not always this, well, you're going to jail, you know, and that's it. There's other stuff where it's like wow, it would be so - it would be so much work, and it would be such a life-changer for me to - for me to press charges or take any action against this person. But every girl I know has had some experience that is kind of like grape.
GROSS: Do you get a big response when you say that?
SCHUMER: Yeah, the women all laugh. And then the men look to see if they're allowed to laugh, and then they laugh. But I - and I wondered when I first started that, and then when everything happened in Steubenville, I wondered oh, should I stop saying that. But it just really still struck a chord in people, and it was a powerful response of just yeah that's true. It was just another yeah, this is something that happens.
GROSS: So are you at all concerned that making jokes about being, you know, quote, slightly raped will, like, diminish the importance of talking about rape and of taking it seriously?
SCHUMER: No, not the way I'm saying it. If anything, I hope it will raise more awareness and make people feel more comfortable having a conversation about it. If you listen to the whole - that whole joke, I say someone sleeping, that's a no. Because I say that at a certain age, men take a woman sleeping as a suggested no. And I say that's a no. And I say there's this other area, and I say everyone has been a little raped.
I'm - I think I'm bringing the conversation to the table so that people will feel more comfortable to talk about it. I'm in no way - my intention is not to minimize how serious rape is, and I don't think I'm doing that, and that's not the response that I've gotten to that joke. But I - and I do take more responsibility now over my material and the reaction to it, and I'm - I was especially careful with that, with that subject.
GROSS: Amy Schumer will be back in the second half of the show. A new episode of her series "Inside Amy Schumer" will be shown on Comedy Central tonight. You'll find a link to her sketch about the difficulty women have accepting compliments on our website, freshair.npr.org. This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: This is FRESH AIR. I'm Terry Gross back with comic Amy Schumer. Her series, "Inside Amy Schumer," is on Comedy Central. A new episode will be shown this evening. She also did a special for that network called "Mostly Sex Stuff." She was featured in an episode of "Girls," and you may have had seen her on "Comedy Central, Celebrity Roasts."
You've done some very high-profile roasts, like Charlie Sheen and Roseanne Barr - who she really complimented you at the end of that roast.
SCHUMER: I know. I started crying.
GROSS: Oh, seriously?
SCHUMER: It was so nice. Yeah. I was so moved by that.
GROSS: I think that was a first time I ever heard your name, in fact.
SCHUMER: You don't think...
GROSS: You know, I turned onto the end of the roast and Roseanne Barr is saying: And that Amy Schumer, she was so funny. And I thought oh, Amy Schumer? Who is - I don't know who that is. Who is that?
SCHUMER: Oh, that's awesome. Roseanne plugged me and made you discover me. Yeah. That was such a special moment. And, yeah, I was really not expecting that. It's a roast, it's such, you know, everyone's claws are out, and then to get a compliment like that from someone I just grew up loving and thinking was so hilarious was...
GROSS: And from somebody who just had every insult in the books thrown at them in a comedic fashion.
SCHUMER: Yeah. I think the comedians really, that's such a place for comedians to shine. We just know that it's, there's no venom and it's just we just appreciate each other constructing jokes. And I did my best to be careful. I'm more careful with women at those roasts, just I think just not to - I wouldn't want to say anything that would actually offend.
GROSS: Why are you more careful with women?
SCHUMER: There's just more territory that I feel like it's you can't say certain things to women. I think attacking a woman's appearance is - I just know how wounding that is and I don't think...
GROSS: Too much like daily life itself.
SCHUMER: Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Just too many people just every day will say something, just a backhanded compliment, or just a flat-out insulting maybe they don't even realize that they think it's something that you've accepted or just, you know, and they'll just hand you a new insecurity, and I would not want to be someone to do that. So I definitely, you know, said hard jokes but I wouldn't say anything about a woman's appearance that I thought might hurt her feelings.
GROSS: How did you get on the roast circuit, so to speak?
SCHUMER: I just had a relationship with Comedy Central. And they know me. They know that I've sort of been trained since birth, I think, to do a roast. I like writing setup punch lines and I can be harsh and they know that about me. But I submitted to write for the Charlie Sheen roast. I just sent in a packet and then they, you make it on to the next round and then they have you write, they make up a fictitious roast. You know, OK, we are roasting Kanye West and Jennifer Aniston, for example. And then you write jokes as though you're roasting them and you submit them.
So I made it through a couple of rounds and then I didn't get it. They were like, you didn't get it. And I was, you know, I was disappointed, and I didn't know that I was in contention to be on the Charlie Sheen roast. And then I found out a couple weeks before that they were thinking about maybe putting me on the dais. And then I found out two weeks before that I was going to be on the dais and roasting Charlie Sheen. And so I had those two weeks to get myself ready for that.
GROSS: Have you said anything at a roast that you've regretted?
SCHUMER: No. I have not said anything a roast that I've regretted. Yeah. No.
GROSS: You did say one thing about Ryan Dunn from "Jackass" after he died...
SCHUMER: I guess you regret me saying it.
GROSS: No. I have no position.
GROSS: I didn't even - I didn't hear the roast, I just, you know, read about it but...
SCHUMER: Right.
GROSS: A lot of people were very offended by what you said. And you've said that you even got death threats afterwards. And...
SCHUMER: Yeah.
GROSS: And that's kind of scary to think about - that you're at a roast where it's like your job to say really insulting things, but then people could get so angry that they threaten you.
SCHUMER: Yeah. That was really surreal. It was I, that joke I, it was, the joke was I said: Steve-O, one of the "Jackass" guys, his friend - one of the other "Jackass" guys had just died in a drunk driving accident. And so I said: Steve-O, I'm sorry for the loss of your friend Ryan Dunn. I'm sure you must be thinking it could've been me. And I know we were all thinking, why wasn't it? So the joke was sort of the I felt like the formula of any roast joke it's takes something that you're not supposed talk about and then twist that into an insult. And I thought it was very typical and didn't see anything that was too much about that. I'm also used to playing with comics and just we go after each other so horribly.
One of my friends at the Comedy Cellar, we, you know, they post the lineup of what comedians are performing, and one of them works under an alias because too many fans show up. And the alias he chose was the name of one of our other friends who work there stepfather who used to beat him up - who used to beat him so, you know, just to mess with him. So we all just go after each other's jugular all the time, and I just didn't think that that joke was a big deal. I didn't think it was a joke about making fun of somebody who died. I thought it was a joke making fun of Steve-O.
And, yeah, and then people's reaction to it, I was really surprised because that joke wasn't a big deal in the room. At the actual roast, there wasn't a huge reaction to it. But the way it was edited, they cut to Steve-O and he looked so sad and I'm sure if I saw that I would've thought, oh, gosh, that was too much or something. But the way it happened in his reaction and, you know, I've spoken to him since. He's a friend. I knew what my intentions were saying that joke and I just, I never felt like I'd made a mistake. And I'm not, I've made several mistakes in my life and I don't think I'm above it, but I don't think that was one of them. I stand by, I stand by that joke.
GROSS: There's a sketch on one of the additions of "Inside Amy Schumer" that relates to roasts. And I want to play a clip from that. And this is a scene where there's a dying child - a child dying of cancer in a hospital. In his last request - his Make a Wish request - is for you to visit him. So you comply and you show up in the hospital. He's in bed with, you know, oxygen tubes in his nose and looking very deathly and pale. And his very worried parents are standing by the bedside. You walk in and stand next to him by the bed. And midway through this scene, the boy's doctor walks in and the boy's doctor starts making jokes. You'll hear that.
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) Hey, Jason. I'm Amy. I brought this for you.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (as Cancer Patient) Oh, your head shot. OK.
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) I just want you to know that you're - you're really special and everything is going to be fine. Well, I'm realizing that I bit off a little bit more than I can chew. It was an honor meeting you.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as Father) Whoa. Whoa. Where do you think you're going?
GROSS: (as Amy Schumer) Oh, I was going to go get my car.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as Mother) Do you know why you're here?
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) I thought I was just, and meet, meet Jason. But I do something wrong?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (as Cancer Patient) Roast me.
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) Roast you?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as Mother) It was our son's last wish to be roasted by a professional comedian.
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) OK. Yeah. I don't - I don't feel comfortable making fun of your son.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as Mother) You think I give a (bleep) what you're comfortable with?
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) OK. OK. OK. OK. Nice - why don't you get more tubes in your nose, weirdo?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as Father) Is that even a joke?
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) OK. Where is the rest of your hair? Is it the hair parade where there's no hair?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as Father) Enough with the softballs, please.
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) OK. This is really hard.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (as Doctor) Hey, hey. Hey, little man.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (as Cancer Patient) Oh, hi.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (as Doctor) How you feeling?
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (as Cancer Patient) Terrible.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Doctor) Well, at least you feel the way you look.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (as Doctor) Am I right? Am I right? Nah, I'm just joking. I'm just joking. You dark and handsome. If it's dark, you're handsome.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (as Doctor) OK. I've got to go. I've got to go.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (as Cancer Patient) LOL.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2, ACTOR: (as Doctor) Oh, gosh, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (as Cancer Patient) Amy, take notes.
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) Those - those were hacked one-liners from the Internet.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: (as Cancer Patient) What?
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) The Internet, you know, the thing you won't be on in three weeks?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (as Father) Hey. Amy.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as Mother) Wow.
SCHUMER: (as Amy Schumer) That's not the direction we're going in?
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (as Father) No.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (as Mother) Listen, he's ready for a laugh, but, you know, could you please make sure it's funny?
GROSS: So that's a sketch from "Inside Amy Schumer" on Comedy Central. Amy Schumer is my guest. Amy, so we've established you've done roasts. How did you come up with the idea for that really weird take...
GROSS: ...on a roast?
SCHUMER: Oh. That wasn't my idea - that scene. That was one of the writers, Kyle Dunnigan. We were kind of talking about roasts and who you wouldn't want to roast and he came in with that idea and it really made us laugh. It's sort of like a little bit "Inside Baseball" with there's a lot of jokes for comedians in that scene. Or even just that I would bring my headshot. But why would this kid want my headshot? And I wrote have a great summer on it. Just such a dumb, like just dumb little jokes throughout the scene. But people just think that comedy can work anywhere. A lot of times we'll be asked to do a fundraiser or, you know, something like that or, oh, will you do stand-up at my friend's birthday? And it's just, it takes so much for a show to be produced well and for stand-up to be successful or a roast to be successful. But people just don't realize that. They're just like oh, tell me a joke.
Whenever someone says oh, just tell me a joke, like a cab driver or anybody, you learn a lesson over time to never do it. It never works. And this is like a scenario - the family, or people are, like, oh, do your bit, roast our son, and they just think it's going to be hilarious and then but it's really kind of hard and too awkward. But then, but the doctor walks in and is just doing jokes from basically a joke book and they're killing. That's like a little, it's a little "Inside Baseball" comedy because, you know, you'll be working on the road and the comedian will go up and just be doing the oldest jokes ever told and just the crowd will be dying laughing. And you're thinking, I cannot believe these people are laughing at this. These are the oldest jokes. He's stealing all these. And then you'll go up and do some stuff that you think is really original and funny and they just stare at you.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is comic and actress Amy Schumer. She has a show on Comedy Central called "Inside Amy Schumer." We're going to take a short break and then we'll talk some more.
This is FRESH AIR.
GROSS: If you're just joining us, my guest is comic and actress Amy Schumer. She has a show on Comedy Central now, which is called "Inside Amy Schumer."
So let's talk about your formative years. You grew up on Long Island. And I don't know much about your family, but I do know, I did read that I guess when you were young your father went bankrupt? So I don't know what happened, but they did change your lives a lot? Did you lose whatever money you had as a family?
SCHUMER: Yeah. I grew up, we were rich when I was younger. My dad opened a baby furniture company called Lewis of London and they would import baby furniture from Italy. And no one was doing that yet so all of the, you know, I was born on the Upper East Side and so all the Upper East Side rich people were like, well, I need a crib from Milan, so we were really wealthy. And then my dad was diagnosed with MS - multiple sclerosis - and at the same time, other people started also importing furniture from Italy and the business went under. And so we had to really downsize, you know, moving from a huge place to a pretty small house. And I really never felt the effects of having less money. I think my parents were probably of whatever came in the aftermath of going bankrupt, my parents felt it and I'm sure so as an extension, I felt it. But I was I think 12 or 13 and just, you know, boy crazy and worried about what I was going to wear, you know, just a shallow teenager.
So I wasn't, I really don't remember feeling the effects of it that much. I had a joke about it that I would feel it - that I felt it in the quality of my birthday parties.
GROSS: So your father got MS the year that he went bankrupt when you were 12 or 13?
SCHUMER: Yeah.
GROSS: How soon did the MS really affect him?
SCHUMER: It was pretty, it kind of hit him like a ton of bricks and it was bad and he was - couldn't feel his legs and he was in the hospital and then it went into remission and he was kind of cool for years. But it would show up sometimes. It's like this quiet disease where you don't, you don't really understand it. Because he would be fine but then all of a sudden he would be moving really slowly and he would be in a lot of pain, but could still do the day-to-day stuff. And so I really didn't understand it very much. And then it hit him where he's been in a wheelchair now for the past I would say, seven years and it's bad. My dad now lives in a hospital. He needs 24-hour care and a doctor on call because it's gotten to that point. But in between being diagnosed and now, it's been 20, it's been over 20 years, so...
GROSS: How did that change your life, having a father who had a degenerative chronic illness?
SCHUMER: I think it has - the way I know that I'm different than some other people are - if seeing something that you love and that was so young and alive and effervescent - like, he was just such a New York guy and playing tennis and always in the ocean. And then to see them - to see their descent, to watch his body sort of decompose, it's pretty - it really darkens you and it really lets you know that you have no control over life.
And I - and so also my relationships. When I'm dating someone I think would I want to push their wheelchair? Would this guy push my wheelchair? My mind goes there if I've been dating somebody for a year or two, and I don't think that happens to people unless they've taken care of a sick relative.
GROSS: You said that you were in your early teens when this happened. And probably very interested in your friends and boyfriends and stuff. Did you push your father's wheelchair when he needed it? Or were you, like, so absorbed in your own, you know, in the transitions in your own life?
SCHUMER: He wasn't in a wheelchair until the past...
GROSS: Right. True. Right.
SCHUMER: Yeah. He wasn't in a - he wasn't wheelchair bound. He still had some money and he had - he remarried after my mom and he has always had people taking care of him, where I didn't need to be that person. But he remarried and was living in New Orleans with a woman who was my - my parents both remarried a couple times so, you know, I've had step parents and sort of step siblings come and go.
So this last step-mom, she knew him from the '70s and it was like, oh, good. I'm so glad this woman showed up and she loves my dad because it would've been my turn and, yeah, had he not remarried I would absolutely right now be - my dad's chair would be in the hallway here. But, I mean, god. I'm sure I would've taken care of my parents back then if they needed me to. I hope.
GROSS: When you were in high school you were voted Class Clown and Teacher's Worst Nightmare. I think this was in 1999. What were your reasons for being voted Teacher's Worst Nightmare?
SCHUMER: That was an award that I won. And half my teachers, like my English teacher and my history teacher were shocked. Because if it was a class I was really interested in I would just listen and be attentive and was a good member of the class. But if it was a class that I struggled or I felt wasn't, you know, like business law, I remember, those are the classes I would kind of act up in.
And I've always just - I would say the funniest thing I could think of. I still am the same way with - like the other day I was on an Amtrak train and the train broke down and so the conductor came back and he was talking to our car and he said, you know, the train was not working and we're going to switch trains. And people are saying, well, do you know what time - people were asking questions.
And I just raised my hand. I'm like who do you think is going to win "The Voice"? Just, you know, I just started asking the most unrelated, worthless questions.
SCHUMER: And it's the same stuff I was doing in high school. So it was just me making dumb jokes.
GROSS: So when you did this on the Amtrak that was recent?
SCHUMER: Yeah. That was probably a month ago.
GROSS: Weren't you a little concerned that somebody would go that's Amy Schumer and then tweet about it? And...
SCHUMER: I'm still...
GROSS: Yeah.
SCHUMER: I'm still not at all - I guess I'm in denial about that still. Like, I - people will call my name now and it scares - it just scares the life out of - I just (gasps). I gasp every time. I am not used to that at all. And, no, so that didn't occur to me. And, yeah, that is true. I think that will hinder my being an idiot in public. I really do. And that is something I will really miss. You know, should this path continue. You know, there's always a chance that I will slip back into obscurity.
GROSS: Amy Schumer, it's been great to talk with you. Thank you so much.
SCHUMER: Thank you.
GROSS: Amy Schumer's series "Inside Amy Schumer" is on Comedy Central. A new episode will be shown this evening. The first season concludes next week. You'll find a link to one of her sketches on our website freshair.npr.or. Coming up, Sofia Coppola's new movie "The Bling Ring" gets our critic-at-large John Powers reflecting on teen obsession with celebrity and the stuff celebrities wear and own. This is FRESH AIR.
TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. "The Bling Ring" is the new film from Sofia Coppola who made "Lost in Translation" and "Marie Antoinette." It's based on the real-life story of a group of Southern California teenagers who in 2008 and 2009 began breaking into the homes of Los Angeles celebrities and stealing their so-called bling - everything from designer clothing to watches and jewelry. Our critic-at-large John Powers says that their crime spree says a lot about our current cultural values.
JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: We live in a world filled with crimes but most of them don't have much to tell us. They're cases of mere stupidity, cruelty or greed. But every now and then one comes along that invites larger thoughts about the culture. Think of the 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese, stabbed to death while nearly 40 witnesses heard her screams but didn't want to get involved. Or the 1974 kidnapping of Patty Hearst, which felt like the final mad curdling of the '60s political dream.
Or the Ponzi scheming of Bernie Madoff, that hollow pillar of the community who came to personify the 2008 financial crisis. Such crimes felt emblematic. Of course, not every emblematic crime is heavy. Take Sofia Coppola's entertaining new film "The Bling Ring" about a posse of thieving teens from L.A.'s prosperous West Valley suburbs.
It's a true story but you can believe its plot was dreamed up by some witty professor of cultural studies who wanted to make a point about America consumerism and celebrity mania. Israel Broussard plays Marc, the new kid at school who desperately wants to be cool. He becomes friends with Rebecca - that's Katie Chang - who's obsessed with fashion and celebrity. Brainy and amoral, Rebecca suggests that they break into the Hollywood home of one of her idols - Paris Hilton.
They do. And they grab what they want from her laughably teeming closets. Soon they and several friends, including a wanna-be reality star Nicki, played by Emma Watson, are robbing the homes of other tabloid luminaries - Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom, Audrina Partridge. Tracking their victims' movements on the Internet, this so-called Bling Ring eventually grabs $3 million' worth of designer clothes, Rolexes, Louis Vuitton luggage, and red-soled Laboutins.
We've come a long way from the days when the young created a counterculture or chaffed at parental restrictions. In "The Bling Ring," adult authority is so squishy that the kids might as well punch a blob of Jell-O. Here, one of the mothers, played by Leslie Mann, tries to enlist her daughter and friends in a visualizing exercise about values.
LESLIE MANN: (as Laurie) OK. So we are going to make vision boards about people who are demonstrating good character. Like Angelina Jolie.
MANN: (as Laurie) So what qualities do you guys admire about Angelina Jolie?
TAISSA FARMIGA: (as Sam) Her husband.
MANN: (as Laurie) Mm-hmm. OK. Anything else?
EMMA WATSON: (as Nicki) Her hot bod.
MANN: (as Laurie) OK. OK. Well, the hot bod is not a characteristic, but OK.
WATSON: (as Nicki) How long do we have to do this for?
MANN: (as Laurie) Well, we're going to do it till we finish, and then we're going to move on to the fluorescence work.
POWERS: If you're older than about, oh, 19, you may spend "The Bling Ring" wanting to break into a chorus of "What's the Matter with Kids Today?" The bling ringers don't merely have a sense of entitlement the size of a stretch Hummer, they have all the moral intelligence of a vacuum cleaner. More feckless than sinister, they boast about their crimes, parade around in their loot, even post pictures on Facebook, which helps get them caught.
Now, Coppola is no incisive social analyst, but her movie does get you thinking about the society that could produce "The Bling Ring." After all, its young robbers aren't that far out of the American mainstream. Indeed, they're an almost natural offshoot of a consumption-crazy culture that incessantly celebrates the idea of owning fancy cars, fancy watches, fancy clothes. They're driven by the same heedless desire to live large that led grownups to run up vast unpayable credit card bills.
Or to make millions selling off shares in worthless mortgages. Their enthrallment by celebrity is mainstream too, endlessly reinforced by a 24/7 media that keeps pretending that nobodies are stars. In the past to be famous you had to do something. You know, have a hit song or win Wimbledon. Now, you simply have to grab attention or possess the signifiers of fame. If you dress like Paris Hilton, you can be like her. So why not steal her clothes and wear them to the same club she'd go to?
This isn't to excuse the Bling Ring's crimes, of course. Hundreds of other kids went to that same high school and managed not to be crooks or worshippers of Lindsay Lohan. And at the other end of the spectrum, countless other young people joined Occupy Wall Street to change the world. They wanted to narrow the gap between the privileged few and the vast majority who are made to feel like powerless losers.
Not so, the Bling Ring whose members clearly see that same gap but are blissfully untroubled by anything resembling idealism. Far from wanting to make a better world, they embrace much of what's shallowest in this one and are willing to break the law to get their share. Talk about rebels without a cause.
GROSS: John Powers is film and TV critic for Vogue and Vogue.com. You can download podcasts of our show on our website freshair.npr.org and you can follow us on Twitter at nprfreshair and on Tumblr at nprfreshair.tumblr.com.
Transcripts are created on a rush deadline, and accuracy and availability may vary. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Please be aware that the authoritative record of Fresh Air interviews and reviews are the audio recordings of each segment.


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GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- In season full of come-from-behind victories, Stetson picked an amazing time to pull off their most dramatic comeback of the year.
Stetson scored three runs in the top of the seventh inning, plating the tying run with two outs, then scored two more in the eighth to defeat UCF 6-4 in the opening round of the NCAA Gainesville Regional Friday afternoon at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
Jessica Griffin's two-out RBI single in the top of the seventh kept the game alive, and Jessie TenBroeck singled home Brittany Hawn with the eventual winning run to lift Stetson to its first-ever NCAA postseason victory.
The Hatters (39-12) advance to play Florida in a winner's bracket game at 1 p.m. Saturday.
"This team is so special, I may never have the same chemistry that I have with these players," Stetson head coach Frank Griffin said. "They are always pulling for each other, and they are always pulling for the coaches and vice-versa. It is a real pleasure to see them win and be successful."
Stetson trailed 2-0 in the top of the sixth when Meredith Owen led off with her 15th home run of the season, an opposite field drive over the right field wall.
UCF (41-17) appeared to put the game away with a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth.
However, Stetson was not ready to concede. Pinch-hitter Morgan Hatch drew a lead-off walk in the seventh, and TenBroeck followed with a perfectly placed bunt single. After Chrissy Morello moved the runners with a ground out, Demi Meza lined a two-run single to rightcenter field to cut the lead to 4-3. Owen then walked, but a strikeout put Stetson down to its final out. Up stepped Jessica Griffin with the game on the line.
"That first pitch came in and I let it go, and coach Griffin looked at me and gave me the hit-and-run (sign)," Jessica Griffin said. "He knew as long as he told me to swing the bat I was going to do it. It was so exciting, and I was so glad I could come through for the team."
Griffin laced a single to center, and Meza beat the throw home to pull the Hatters even.
"I gave Jess the hit and run but held my runners," Frank Griffin said. "I wanted her to swing the bat and she did. It tied the game up, and gave us some confidence."
Left fielder Courtney Brandt made two tough catches in the bottom of seventh to help send the game to extra innings. The Hatters wasted little time breaking the tie in the eighth as Hawn walked, moved to second on a passed ball, and scored on TenBroeck's single to center. TenBroeck would steal second and score an insurance run on Morello's line drive single to left field.
"The first six innings we had several opportunities but we just continued to leave runners in scoring position," said Frank Griffin, who coached in his 1000th game at Stetson. "It was very frustrating. In the end, when it had to be done, they got the job done."
Owen (27-7) retired the side in order in the bottom of the eighth to record the victory, despite allowing a season-high four earned runs. She walked two and struck out five.
"Obviously I didn't have my (best) stuff on the mound, but they just had my back the entire game," Owen said. "That is just an awesome feeling, to know my team has my back no matter what they are not going to give up on me."
It was Stetson's 14th come-from-behind victory of the season, and the team's second win when down to its last out.


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Associated Press MOBILE, Ala. (AP) Passengers who finally escaped the disabled Carnival cruise ship Triumph were checking into hotels early Friday for a hot shower, fresh-cooked food and sleep or boarding buses for a long haul home after five numbing days at sea on a powerless ship.
The vacation ship carrying some 4,200 people docked late Thursday in Mobile after a painfully slow approach that took most of the day. Passengers raucously cheered after days of what they described as overflowing toilets, food shortages and foul odors.
"Sweet Home Alabama!" read one of the homemade signs passengers affixed alongside the 14-story ship as many celebrated at deck rails lining several levels of the stricken ship. The ship's horn loudly blasted several times as four tugboats pulled the crippled ship to shore at about 9:15 p.m. CST. Some gave a thumbs-up sign and flashes from cameras and cellphones lit the night.
Less than four hours later, the last passenger had disembarked.
Some, like 56-year-old Deborah Knight of Houston, had no interest in boarding one of about 100 buses assembled to carry passengers to hotels in New Orleans or Texas. Her husband Seth drove in from Houston and they checked into a downtown Mobile hotel.
"I want a hot shower and a daggum Whataburger," said Knight, who was wearing a bathrobe over her clothes as her bags were unloaded from her husband's pickup truck. She said she was afraid to eat the food on board and had gotten sick while on the ship.
Buses arrived in the pre-dawn darkness at a Hilton in New Orleans to reporters and paramedics on the scene with wheelchairs to roll in passengers who were elderly or too fatigued to walk.
Many were tired and didn't want to talk. There were long lines to check into rooms. Some got emotional as they described the deplorable conditions of the ship.
"It was horrible, just horrible" said Maria Hernandez, 28, of Angleton, Texas, tears welling in her eyes as she talked about waking up to smoke in her lower-level room Sunday and the days of heat and stench to follow. She was on a "girls trip" with friends.
She said the group hauled mattresses to upper-level decks to escape the heat. As she pulled her luggage into the hotel, a flashlight around her neck, she managed a smile and even a giggle when asked to show her red "poo-poo bag" distributed by the cruise line for collecting human waste.
This was only part of her journey to get home. Hernandez, like hundreds others, would get to enjoy a brief reprieve at the hotel before flying home later in the day.
"I just can't wait to be home," she said.
It wasn't long after the ship pulled into the Port of Mobile that passengers began streaming down the gang plank, some in wheelchairs and others pulling carry-on luggage. One man gave the thumbs up.
An ambulance pulled up to a gate and pulled away, lights flashing.
Carnival had said it would take up to five hours for all the 3,000 passengers to be off. It took closer to four.
"All guests have now disembarked the Carnival Triumph," Carnival tweeted.
For 24-year-old Brittany Ferguson of Texas, not knowing how long passengers had to endure their time aboard was the worst part.
"I'm feeling awesome just to see land and buildings," said Ferguson, who was in a white robe given to her aboard to weather the cold nights. "The scariest part was just not knowing when we'd get back."
As the ship pulled up, some aboard shouted, "Hello, Mobile!" Some danced in celebration on one of the balconies. "Happy V-Day" read one of the homemade signs made for the Valentine's Day arrival and another, more starkly: "The ship's afloat, so is the sewage."
A few dozen relatives on the top floor of the parking deck of the terminal were waving lights at the ship as it carefully made its way alongside. Those about were screaming, whistling and taking pictures.
Hundreds gawked from dockside at the arrival at the Alabama cruise terminal in Mobile, the state's only seaport, as the Triumph docked.
Taxis were lined up waiting for people, and motorists on Interstate 10 stopped to watch the exodus of passengers from the cruise ship.
Some still aboard chanted, "Let me off, let me off!"
It took six grueling hours navigating the 30-odd-mile ship channel to dock, guided by at least four towboats. Nearly 900 feet in length, it was the largest cruise ship ever to dock at Mobile.
In texts and flitting cellphone calls, the ship's passengers described miserable conditions while at sea.
Buses left the terminal over several hours. Up to 100 had been reserved to carry passengers either on a seven-hour ride to the Texas cities of Galveston or Houston or a two-hour trip to New Orleans.
Galveston is the home port of the ill-fated ship, which lost power in an engine-room fire Sunday some 150 miles off Mexico's Yucatan peninsula. It was the end of a cruise that wasn't anything like what a brochure might describe.
Carnival CEO Gerry Cahill apologized at a news conference and later on the public address system as people were disembarking.
"I appreciate the patience of our guests and their ability to cope with the situation. And I'd like to reiterate the apology I made earlier. I know the conditions on board were very poor," he said. "We pride ourselves on providing our guests with a great vacation experience, and clearly we failed in this particular case."
Passenger Ferguson said crew members tried to make the situation bearable.
"They did their best to keep our spirits up," she said.
Joseph and Cecilia Alvarez of San Antonio said some passengers passed the time by forming a Bible study group.
"It was awesome," he said. "It lifted up our souls and gave us hope that we would get back."
While the passengers are headed home, Triumph will head to a Mobile shipyard for assessment.
Earlier Thursday four days after the 893-foot ship was crippled in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico the passengers and crew suffered another setback with towline issues that brought the vessel to a dead stop for about an hour just as it was getting close to port.
As the vessel drew within cellphone range Thursday, passengers vented their anger.
In a text message, Kalin Hill, of Houston, described deplorable conditions over the past few days.
"The lower floors had it the worst, the floors `squish' when you walk and lots of the lower rooms have flooding from above floors," Hill wrote. "Half the bachelorette party was on two; the smell down there literally chokes you and hurts your eyes."
She said "there's poop and urine all along the floor. The floor is flooded with sewer water … and we had to poop in bags."
The company disputed the accounts of passengers who described the ship as filthy, saying employees were doing everything to ensure people were comfortable.
Carnival has canceled a dozen more planned voyages aboard the Triumph and acknowledged the crippled ship had been plagued by other mechanical problems in the weeks before the engine-room blaze. The National Transportation Safety Board has opened an investigation.
Passengers were supposed to get a full refund and discounts on future cruises, and Carnival announced Wednesday they would each get an additional $500 in compensation.
Kendall Jenkins of Houston won her first cruise as a contest prize. But she's never planning to set sail on a cruise again after the ill-fated voyage of the Triumph, despite the offer for another free cruise.
"This is my first and last cruise. So if anyone wants my free cruise look me up," said Jenkins, 24.
She and her friend, Brittany Ferguson, bounded off the ship Thursday night clad in bathrobes. They immediately kissed the pavement at the Port of Mobile, having spent their final minutes aboard jumping up and down excitedly.
Associated Press writers Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston, Stacey Plaisance in New Orleans, Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala., and Melissa Nelson-Gabriel in Mobile, Ala., contributed to this report.


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Post by: Gary Tuchman, John King
Filed under: Boy Scouts of America • Gary Tuchman • Keeping Them Honest
Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.
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Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361°


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Memory is a complicated process, one that involves further experiences, changes in gene expression, and the structure of nerve connections. Forming a memory will clearly involve a variety of processes and proteins, but over the last several years, a variety of evidence has pointed to one protein appearing to be key to the formation of memories: protein kinase M ζ.
Drugs that inhibit this protein could wipe out long-term memories. Expressing more of the protein stabilized memories when they'd normally start to fade. PKM-ζ appeared to alter a process called long-term potentiation, in which repeated patterns in nerve activity get translated into long-term changes in brain behavior.
But now, researchers have thrown a monkey wrench into the gears of this otherwise smooth-running model. When the gene for PKM-ζ is knocked out, the resulting mice have no problems forming memories. But when these mice are exposed to the drug that is supposed to target the (now missing) protein, they still showed deficits in memory. All of this suggests the drug that got everyone excited about PKM-ζ isn't all that specific after all. Oops.
It's a shame. PKM-ζ made an appealing candidate as a key mediator of memory. It's actually an alternate, shortened form of the Protein Kinase C ζ gene. The full-length PKC form includes sections that allow its activity to be regulated by what's going on in the cell. The shortened, PKM form lacks all of this, meaning it's always active. So, it's easy to envision a model where a nerve cell that only has PKC-ζ is able to flexibly respond to transient neural activity. In contrast, the cells expressing PKM-ζ have their activity state locked in, allowing them to retain information (like a memory) indefinitely.
Preliminary results also looked good. Expressing more PKM-ζ seemed to allow cells to hang on to memories for longer. A drug called ZIP, which was designed to look like a stretch of protein that is normally targeted by PKM-ζ (which adds phosphates to other proteins), could inhibit memory formation. It even hastened the loss of older memories. Everything seemed to be pointing in one direction.
That's why the knockout results are a bit of a shock. Since the two genes (PKC-ζ and PKM-ζ) overlap, it's impossible to eliminate only one of them. But the mice that lacked both ended up looking and acting perfectly normal. One of the two papers describing them failed to detect any differences between the knockout and normal mice, while the second only noted a handful of subtle differences on a handful of anxiety tests out of a large collection of behavioral assays they performed.
Both teams of researchers made sure a related kinase wasn't compensating for the loss of PKM-ζ. One checked the expression of all the related proteins in the brain and found they were largely unchanged. The other team made a conditional PKM-ζ deletion so the gene would only be eliminated after administration of a drug. As far as memory tests were concerned, these mice were also normal.
But the most surprising result came when both teams tested the drug ZIP in their knockout mice. ZIP is a short section of protein designed to look like the normal target of PKM-ζ; it has been thought to alter memory by simply swamping PKC-ζ, preventing it from performing its normal role. Yet, even when PKC-ζ was completely missing, ZIP continued to interfere with the formation and maintenance of memories. That strongly suggests ZIP is acting through a different target entirely, and it raises further questions about PKM-ζ's role in memory.
It's probably too early to write off PKM-ζ entirely. It's still possible the balance between PKC-ζ and PKM-ζ is important—since this knockout eliminated both, it's impossible to tell. But it should be possible to test this by modifying the gene so that it can express only PKC-ζ.
However, the results do suggest that PKM-ζ simply can't be the essential mediator of memory formation that people once suspected. It may still have a role, but more as a part of large network of activities that help consolidate a memory—a perspective more similar to the one that prevailed before the earlier PKM-ζ results started coming in.
But the papers, in addition to showing it is possible to publish negative results, do indicate that ZIP is doing something to memory, which almost certainly involves targets other than PKM-ζ. The labs involved in this research are undoubtedly already doing their best to find out what.
Nature, 2012. DOI: 10.1038/nature11802, 10.1038/nature11803 (About DOIs).


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1) Select a file to send by clicking the "Browse" button. You can then select photos, audio, video, documents or anything else you want to send. The maximum file size is 500 MB.
2) Click the "Start Upload" button to start uploading the file. You will see the progress of the file transfer. Please don't close your browser window while uploading or it will cancel the upload.
3) After a succesfull upload you'll receive a unique link to the download site, which you can place anywhere: on your homepage, blog, forum or send it via IM or e-mail to your friends.
Zippyshare.com is completely free, reliable and popular way to store files online.
We offer fast download speeds.
The maximum filesize for a single file is 500 MB.
The file can be downloaded at any time and as often as you need it.
File Life: 30 days after no activity.
No ridiculous queues!
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Report illegal files, please click here and send full link to us!


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